rambles, rants, & raves about living in my world

Menu

Monthly Archives: May 2012

Hi! Did you miss me? It’s been a while… big girl life has started to take over and just as I’m getting into the groove of my schedule, it’s going to all change starting Tuesday! Helloooo again to early mornings!

Well, one the most exciting weekends of the year is over – CrossFit Regionals. I got to watch two of my coaches compete and kick some CrossFit a$$! Watching beasts knock out some heavy weights and crazy WODs got the gears in my head turning again and now I have even more goals to add to my list. I would love to compete with a team there someday, maybe in two years…. Bottom line, I want to be a bada$$ beast like the girls there. It also was reassuring to see tall girls there… there’s hope!

Me and the man

Go Tim!!!!

Coach Tom!

AMEN!

I had a gazillion pictures and videos, but they didn’t do justice to seeing it all in person. Watching the top athletes do muscle-ups with ease and throw around big weights makes everything look easy. Then I remember how much hard work it takes and how much pain and time is put into it and it makes me want to grow up to be a CrossFit athlete. Screw work and everything else. Let’s WOD all day and play in the gym. Who needs all that other stuff?

Speaking of stuff, I bought more clothes. That means that almost 90% of my closet is stuffed with CrossFit related shirts… not to mention headbands and knee socks. I think I have more knee socks than regular socks… I have a problem.

So what did I do on the way home from the most motivating weekend ever?? Cheated. Me and Cole stopped at this small place and decided we deserved a small treat after three days of all-out cheering. We split some cheesy pub chips and then I got pulled pork and nibbled at a few baked beans. Have I mentioned that my body doesn’t agree with dairy? Cheese is the worst. We were only about an hour away from being home so when we were about 25 minutes away, it felt like I was getting stabbed in my stomach and I knew the cheese had hit. I learned my lesson. Then it started raining ungodly hard so it was not a fun drive the rest of the way home. Cheese + Caroline = sick. I won’t go into details, ha!

My body is still sore, thanks to my sister for writing me up a Westside Barbell workout to help build up my upper body strength.

I felt like a T-Rex when I was done. I had to drive back up to Bloomington right after this and holding the steering wheel felt terrible. Good thing I have knees that help drive =)

Know what else I found out I’m doing Saturday? COMPETING in a small competition. OMG I’m already nervous. I love competing but sometimes my nerves take over, so I figure that if I want to eventually make it to Regionals, I need to learn to stay calm. Hopefully they have on-sight bathrooms. Even though this is nothing like Regionals, you have to start somewhere right? But, it will be a blast so I’m excited!

Then that night is a 2-year CrossFit Instinct party! #pumpedcity. Let’s just say that there is probably going to be some drunken handstands, pullups, pistols, and other fun things involved. CrossFit people are so fun!

I’ll leave you with goals/timeline that my sister wrote on the CrossFit Instinct white board. Time to dial in and get serious!

Oh, and I got to see Chevelle in concert last night. A-freaking-mazing. They officially are my new favorite; I love them more than I already did. They sounded awesome. Be jealous.

As for the internship, it. is. awesome. I love the place I am at already; the people are great and I get to work with younger kids/teens and do functional training. So fun! The not so fun part? My teacher is making us write reports every week to keep her updated on how things are going… I know, just plain nosey. My schedule is total opposite than what it was during the school year (for now), so I am not starting my day until later instead of super early. But, it’s a nice relief to be able to sleep in a bit and not get up at the butt crack of dawn to drive a van. I don’t miss that at all.

I am missing my regular cable, though! I can’t watch all my Bravo and Food Network shows every night :(, but I do have Netflix now, so my new thing is Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I’ve never watched it before so 88 episodes will keep me occupied for quite some time. Moving is so hectic and I’m glad things worked out so I can live in my sister’s place for a couple months until I move back to Da Field, but that means: 2 girls in one apartment, both with a lot of clothes, bathroom accessories, and food. I never thought I’d live with someone with more bathroom/perfume stuff than me (ahem, I packed a duffel bag full of smell-good stuff), but I think my sister wins on this one! (haha sorry, Liana, but you have a lot of stuff! =) Love you!) BUT she lives at a place with a pool so you know where I’ll be on the weekends!

Since I’ve started a new schedule, it’s taking time to figure out when and what to eat. The other day, I made a big thing of roasted root veggies and mixed it with some grass-fed beef so I can have dinner ready when I get home. I’m starving by the time I walk in the door and if I don’t have something made, I seem to pick and snarf down all my food while I’m waiting for my real dinner to cook. Oink oink.

Here’s what it turned out as:

I used: 4 parsnips, handful of baby carrots (I hate cooked carrots but I needed to get rid of them), one turnip, 4 small beets, 1 medium eggplant, some basil, pepper, salt, garlic, and coconut aminos. I wanted to throw more veggies in there but there was no room! I baked it at 375 degrees for about 40ish minutes and it went perfect mixed with some ground beef!

For now, that’s all I’ve had time to make, besides some eggs and maybe chicken tonight.

Want to know something cool? I got a new back squat PR yesterday! woohoo! I thought that after drowning myself in alcohol and some cheats that I would feel extra achey and weak, but nope! A combo of good energy and positive thinking helped me fight through 190# back squat for the first time! Next goal is to get over 200#, that would be amazing. Or get a muscle-up, like my sister did!!! yay! I’m so happy for her!

WHOA. Where has the time gone?? These past 4 days have been so exciting and busy, they have literally flown by.

Wednesday was officially my last day of school and my last final; I was up nice and early to study since it was at 7:50am. It was also the day my sister had to defend her thesis and I was lucky enough to go watch all of her dedication and hard work pay off– she did an awesome job! Afterwards, we decided we needed to celebrate, true ISU style, and head over to The Pub. At 2:45pm. It was all downhill from there.

I had my first non-Whole30 item in 42 days! Beer. I can’t lie, it was mighty tasty. After sitting and chatting for a couple hours, we headed down to Medici, a little restaurant/bar in uptown, to meet with some of my sisters classmates and teacher. What’s the smartest thing to do after having pitchers of beer? A blueberry muffin martini. To put it lightly, this thing was nasty. And strong. The kind of strong where you get goosebumps and a twisted face after taking a sip.

After choking down that glass of blue grossness, we went back to The Pub and I thought I might as well keep switching things up and get some Vodka Lemonades. Mmm those were super good! If you’ve ever been to Normal and experienced The Pub on a Wednesday night, you know it gets crazy packed and full of college kids. Since there was nowhere for our big group to sit together, we headed to a friend’s apartment and started playing this stupid game. With beer. And I sucked bad at the game. All of that equals disgusting things.

My alcohol adventure

Let’s just say my night didn’t end pretty. I saw swiss chard and meatza in ways I never want to see them again. Ew.

As my sister said, at least I went out with a bang! Ha, funny because I woke up Thursday and felt like pure death. I felt paralyzed. I couldn’t even move out of bed for an hour; when I did, I moved to my couch and laid there. I somehow mustered up energy to take a shower and amazingly didn’t fall over. It might have been the worst 3 hours of my life. AND I had to start packing my apartment up that day. Ugh, it was a horrendous day to get through.

Friday was 100 times better because I actually worked out back at CrossFit Instinct! It was me, my sister, and a fellow female member (she’s going to Regionals yay!) and we did a partner-trio WOD-

Two people flipped a 205 lb. tire back and forth while the other person completed 10 KB swings (with a 70#!) and 30 double unders for a total of 10 min. I’ve never used a 70# KB in a WOD before and it was a monster! My forearms are still sore from that dang tire too! The other ladies did amazing and it was so fun to get a good workout in.

What’s even better is that my other sister drove back to ISU with me to celebrate me and my other sister’s graduations! It was such a fun night hanging out with both of them- I love having 2 older sisters who are my best friends! =)

<3<3<3

Saturday was moving/graduation day. I love how the apartment places make us move out by 5pm on graduation day… so nice. Thank God my sister was here to help me or I would have been SOL. Finally, graduation happened, we went out to dinner with my parents (yay!) and they took another load of my junk home. Moving is such a headache, but I’m lucky I moved into my sisters apartment while she’s away for the summer.

So that’s it. Tomorrow starts another chapter in life – the summer internship. We get to pay the school for a “class” so I can work for free for 12 weeks. Makes so much sense, right? What I am super excited for is this weekend… North Central CrossFit Regionals!!!!!!! Yay! I will be the best cheerleader in the crowd.

Ok, time to shower and chill. Went on a 90 minute bike ride for the first time in ages so I’m probably going to be sore in all the wrong spots tomorrow!

I have been a terrible blogger lately. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to sit here and aimlessly type about everything that comes to mind; it’s been a hectic week and probably will be for the next 2 weeks! Saturday was my mom’s birthday, Monday was my birthday, I have 3 finals this week, party on Friday, Graduation Saturday, and I have to be moved out of my place by Saturday. Then Monday is the first day of my internship. Whoa. All so exciting!!!

Needless to say, I haven’t made any new food this week. Come to think about it, I have nothing in my fridge right now… just some hard-boiled eggs and shredded zucchini. Yeah… time for the store tonight! And most likely I won’t be making anything new or interesting, unlike my sister! ( <—- link to HER blog with some good recipes and pics!)

My other sister cooked me an amazingWhole30 dinner! It’s so nice to have your sister living in the same college-town as you! And one that is willing to cook, make it Whole30, and make it taste super good!

Lettuce wraps!

We had some good (and needed) laughs over some TV shows and got to chatter up our excitement for Wednesday afternoon. We are both done with finals that day, she defends her thesis, and we will both be done with school!!! Know what that means? We’re goin’ to The Pub! So today will be my official last day of eating/drinking clean.

Now, I’m not going to go out and shove my face with cheese balls, candy, chips, and fried chicken. No, I’m just going to drink something that’s not coffee, tea, or water for the first time in over 6 weeks. I plan on continuing eating clean, even when McDonald’s, the ultimate hangover food, is right down the road. Some of you may be shunning me for taking a break from all this cleanliness to go out for some drinks, but what did you do to celebrate your college graduation and 22nd birthday? Hmmm?? You only live once, right?

I hope my inner-thigh soreness starts to go away though. As always, the past few WODs have made me walk funny and have made it uncomfortable to sit. Just in time for studying and sitting through hours of testing!

Enough jibber-jabber. I have to study and get in the right mindset to demolish my upcoming WOD:

4 minute AMRAP for 3 rounds:

5 Deadlifts (135/95)

7 KB swings (55/35)

5 Hang power cleans (135/95)

rest 1 minute

I love these movements so I am actually excited to dead, swing, and hang. HooAh!

Check your calendars. Today is officially Tempt Caroline with Everything Day. It started during my 1 o’clock class when my teacher made everyone cupcakes. And I love cupcakes. Then, I went to Schnucks and they had SAMPLES of the Lofthouse cookies… Seriously, when are there ever just free cookies sitting out? Especially those melt-in-your-mouth, icing so good cookies. Next, Barnes & Noble had someone from their Starbucks walking around handing out little cups of their Mocha Chip Frappuccinos with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. Thank you, society, for making my will power stronger.

I think having a killer WOD a few hours prior also helped me. I think I could have walked faster on my last 200m run, I was freakin’ beat. And the humidity was at 200% so it was nice and easy to breathe (not). But I would have this weather any day over winter!

After all that madness and my temptation-filled hours, I came home and cooked, cooked, cooked. And did a sh!tload of dishes…. All while listening to Pandora. What station you ask? The artist’s name rhymes with fiddle gone. Get it? Let’s just say it was bumpin’ in here.

Frustration just drained into my blood. I needed to get away from my humid and sticky apartment and get my final paper for a class written, so I drove to Starbucks, ordered a Vanilla Rooibos Tea, opened up my computer, got out my folder that had the instructions for the final in it and…. no paper. Son of a… And I’m not about to pack up my stuff, drive home, get my paper, and drive back out here. Is that being stubborn? Lazy? Maybe.

All I know is that it’s been one of those days. You know, the ones where you drop every third bundle of papers during delivery, where it’s 100% humidity out and your hair looks like you’ve rubbed a balloon all over it, and you’re so bloated that you feel like wearing oversized t-shirts and lying around all day. Yeah, one of those days. I’m not being a negative Nancy here or anything (that’s never the answer to anything!) but I’m just putting it out there and accepting it.

Two days of class and three finals stand between me and summer. And by summer, I mean a 12-week, full-time, no-pay internship. At least I like the place I’ll be at and the people there! Have you gotten the drift that I can’t wait to be done with school?? I’m ready to go back to being a full-time gym rat and not worry about assignments or class.

Today, my last ever fitness column was published in the Daily Vidette. Want to see it? Here ya go. It will be weird to get out of the routine of doing those!

Want to know something cool? I forgot to subtract one minute off my WOD time yesterday (since I started with 1:00 on the timer). That boosted my ego a bit yesterday as I remembered it! Yesterday’s brutality, I mean WOD, consisted of:

4 rounds:

20 front squats (95#/65#)

20 push ups

Front delts were on FIRE! A good burner though. Can’t say the same for today’s…

16 minute AMRAP:

run 400m

15 push press (95#/65#)

This one was more of run, burn the shoulders for a second, and run again. My least favorite thing. And it was even sweeter that the smell of Dairy Queen was wafting in my mouth and nose as I was scooting along my 400m. Gross. This WOD sucked the life out of me and it was necessary to fall to the ground after the last push press rep was done at 15:56.

Thank god for WODs or else I would be a total b!tch some days.

Anywho, today is day 36 of Whole30. I honestly have just lost count and it feels normal to eat this way all the time which is awesome. I made-a some more-a MEATZA! and added some broccoli slaw (thanks for the suggestion, Liana!) on top and more olives since those are bomb. Currently, I am using my dehydrator to dry out some zucchini to make “chips” so I’m sure I’ll munch down on those soon. I keep saying I want to make some sauces for stuff; I guess the rain and nasty weather has made me super duper lazy and I haven’t accomplished much lately. Besides being a clutz (klutz? hm.. you get the point).

Since sitting down and being a clumsy mess, the sun has started to shine and I can see the blue sky! This time it’s the real blue, not clouds about to burst out some rain. Woohoo! Thanks for listening to what goes on in my head. This blog and O.A.R. radio have kept me sane for the day. I might actually get up and go walk around for a bit since I can feel my hams and hips tightening up every minute I sit here. I swear I’m going to start bringing my lacrosse ball wherever I go and sit on it to rub my hammies. People already stare when I wear my knee socks, vibrams, or have chalk all over me, so it’d be nothing out of the ordinary to mobilize in public. Right?